Come To California!

*OR: Come To California! Where the Sun Shines, and Where Our Best Meteorological Science Indicates It Won't Stop Shining For A Long Time, Causing Devastating Drought In A State With Horrific Water Management Issues In The First Place, But Don't Fret, If You Don't Live Here Already, You Can't Really Afford To Live Here, Unless You're Among The Very Wealthy Or You're OK With Substantial Tradeoffs In Your Quality Of Life, And If You Do Live Here Already, You're Either Renting Long-Term With No Control Of Your Future, At Substantial Cost and Essentially Setting Cash On Fire, Or You're Locked Into Untenable Mortgage Debt On Top Of A Crumbling Public School System So You Spend An Unseemly Percentage Of Your Income That Didn't Go To Rent Or Mortgage Payments Already On A Private School That Your Kid Probably Won't Be Admitted To, Anyways

A stirring New Yorker video on California's "extraordinary" drought, farmers and you: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/california-paradise-burning

Oh, and here's some pictures of where you used to get your water: California reservoir drought pictures

A New York Times piece on unaffordable housing for the middle class: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/us/a-california-dream-not-having-to-settle-for-just-one-bedroom.html

Have a nice day! Don't forget your suntan lotion.

— Q

Asimov on Humanity

 

“...Dr. Seldon, you disturb the peace of the Emperor’s realm. None of the quadrillions living now among all the stars of the Galaxy will be living a century from now. Why, then, should we concern ourselves with events of three centuries distance?”

“I shall not be alive half a decade hence,” said Seldon, “and yet it is of overpowering concern to me. Call it idealism. Call it an identification of myself with that mystical generalization to which we refer by the term, ‘humanity.’ ”

I'm re-reading "Foundation" and as when I was much younger, I'm struck by this brief exchange (from 1942, loosely based on the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" writings) that defines our inability to look to and plan for the future.

Vital projects that range from fixing public school education, to rebuilding public infrastructure, to planetary science and outward exploration are suffering and setting our country and entire species back. Will we ever look forward? Will we ever truly set the stage for our grandchildren to chart the stars from an intimate seat amongst the vast depths of space?

Jon Gruber on Obamacare →

A very candid, thoughtful post by Daring Fireball creator and entrepreneur Jon Gruber. 

This situation is becoming the norm, despite the substantial hiccups and Republican bullshit. Growing pains are going to continue (and yes, OF COURSE, they didn't need to be as drastic or clusterfuck-y as they've been so far), but they'll eventually recede and when they do, the greater good wins. 

In the game of health care, access and affordability, we're losing late in the 4th quarter. We're bottoming out in care rankings, no one can afford coverage and it's driving the country broke. 

But we have a chance. We have to stay the course.

The Fog Horn Magazine →

Yesterday I soft-launched my newest project, The Fog Horn.
 

What Is It? 

The Fog Horn is a new magazine of fictional short stories that'll launch this fall. 4 stories an issue, 12 issues a year.
 

Where Can I Find It? 

The Fog Horn will be for iOS devices only -- iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Why? Because of Newsstand. Building, supporting and subscribing to a Newsstand app couldn't be easier, and we're aiming to take advantage of that to produce a high quality app full of stellar new writing.
 

What's Inside? 

All fiction genres are welcome! We're hoping to strike a balance among fancy screenwriters, established authors, non-fiction writers looking to scratch an itch and, most importantly, new writers.
 

Who's It For?

For fiction lovers. For readers on-the-go. For you, if we're lucky!
 

When Can I Start Reading? 

We're aiming for this fall. Sign up for updates at TheFogHornMagazine.com and follow @TheFogHorn on Twitter.


Where Can I Submit My Story? 

We're excited you asked! You can submit your previously unpublished story at TheFogHornMagazine.com. Only the best will be published and we can't wait to read yours.


Is It True You're Paying For Stories? 

Writers should be paid for great writing. Published stories will earn what we believe to be a very reasonable paycheck. 

That's it for now, follow us on Twitter for more!

 

The New Yorker: What's In A Google Phone?

Even as an ardent Apple product user, I have to admit that the entire prospect of Google Now sounds appealing. Your phone, finally sending you help -- not you asking for it. Push, not pull. Siri can't do that.

I imagine millions will opt-in, and Google Now will drive Android to new levels of success. It's futuristic, easy and cool. If you already use Google Search and other Google products, you don't have to do anything new for Google Now to work for you. Just say yes. Apple will be seen as behind the curve, even as we give more security away, with inevitable and massive personal data breaches and data dumps.

On that note: having already been involved in outrageous hacking plots, I sign into Google as rarely as possible for the simple reason that I don't want my internet habits tracked, and therefore couldn't use Google Now to its fullest potential. I use DuckDuckGo for search, and I opt for other paid products as often as possible (SmugMug, Evernote, etc). I want my money -- not advertising sold against my info -- to be the source of a company's revenue.

I want to be the customer. I don't want to be the product.

Beach Read #2: The Universe Within

Beach Read #2 was THE UNIVERSE WITHIN, by Neil Shubin.

It's a delightfully detailed and nerdy, yet approachable take on "We're all star stuff". There's all kinds of fun facts and revelations for the lay person, like the conclusion that the earth is three-quarters of the way through its life expectancy. Ruh-roh.

Here's another fun excerpt (Quick context: when North America and Africa broke apart 200 million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean formed. More ocean = more algae, which slowly fueled more oxygen into the atmosphere, "lifting the lid" on future big mammals, whose cells need more oxygen to flourish):

Since the fetus receives all of its oxygen from the mother, there needs to be a way that oxygen can be transferred from the mother's blood. The transfer is facilitated by a steep gradient between the concentration of oxygen in the maternal blood and that of the fetus: under these conditions, oxygen will travel into the fetus. Importantly, the oxygen content of the mother's blood has to be sufficiently high to enable this transfer in the first place.
This constraint means that mammals with a placenta do not easily develop above fifteen thousand feet altitude.
Tellingly, the oxygen at these altitudes is equivalent to that in the atmosphere at sea level 200 million years ago, before the Atlantic Ocean formed. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.